WawonaNews.com - July 2015

Yosemite forest fire example of possible things to come

By A'ndrea Elyse MesserJune 29, 2015

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Forest composition, ground cover and topography are the best predictors of forest fire severity in the Western U.S., according to Penn State physical geographers who also see that the long history of fire exclusion on federal lands leads to uncharacteristically severe burns and potentially changes the dynamics of forests and their recovery. A hunter's illegal campfire in Stanislaus National Forest adjacent to Yosemite National Park started what would become the Rim fire, the third largest fire in California history, that burned from August through October 2013. The fire burned about 400 square miles inside and outside Yosemite, with 78 square miles burned on the worst day. "We would never be able to do an experiment on this, never be able to burn the forest in this way, so this natural experiment is a perfect opportunity to see what happens," said Alan H. Taylor, professor of geography. Taylor and Lucas Harris, graduate student in geography, studied the forest's recovery in the aftermath of the Rim fire. They report their results in the current issue of Ecosystems. "This area burned at uncharacteristically high severity and did so even though fire weather was not particularly extreme," said Taylor. "The fire does not appear to have restored the forest to before fire suppression, but altered it." Forest fires occur naturally, usually initiated by lightning strikes. Native Americans also started fires accidently or deliberately to improve plant growth and hunting. "If a forest burns every ten years, ponderosa pine is pretty fire resistant," said Harris. "But after 100 years of fire suppression, there are a lot of pine needles on the forest floor and they are highly flammable. We found areas of ponderosa pine burned more severely than areas with other trees."

The U.S. Forest Service in the early 1900s instituted a policy of total fire suppression or fire exclusion in the forests they managed. Taylor and Harris looked at fire severity from 1899 in Yosemite, the last year a fire burned in the study area, for a baseline of forest composition and fire's effects on the forest. They sought to determine the factors influencing the severity of the Rim fire and whether the Rim fire's patterns were outside those of historic variability. "Fuels and terrain were the major factors contributing to the severity of the forest fire," said Harris. "The only one of these that can be controlled is the fuel." In some areas that have not burned for 100 years, workers go in and remove underbrush -- herbaceous plants, shrubs and small trees -- to reduce fuel load, but this is very labor intensive. Also, controlled burning is sometimes used to reduce the fuel load on the ground and the underbrush. Big Oak Flat, the area under study, is a never-logged wilderness area, so burning is the only possibility, but sometimes there is too much fuel to control the burns. "In pine forests where fires naturally occur every five to 10 years, 100 years of fire exclusion creates an understory with abundant surface fuel and small trees that allow fires to move into the tree canopies," said Taylor. "Normally, with frequent fires, only the understory burns with some burn scarring of tree trunks, but the trees survive. However, in Big Oak Flat during the Rim fire, there was an unusually high proportion of moderate and high severity fires compared to 1899." Once the fires move into the canopy, they can kill the forest. Fire suppression also changes the types of trees in the forest. Since the 1899 fire, a lot more white fir populated the forests, according to the researchers. "When you have severe fires, there is a potential for the vegetation to switch to shrubs," said Taylor. "If these shrubs burn again before the trees can re-establish, the forest won't recover and you are left with shrub lands." To mitigate the situation, the researchers suggest that it might take multiple low to moderate severity controlled burns to restore the forest to one that self-regulates through natural periodic fires in small areas. A Joint Fire Sciences Program Grant funded this research.

Google takes would-be Yosemite climbers to new heights

There are plenty of maps and apps that can guide you to Yosemite National Park.But what if you want to see the top of El Capitan?You can climb -- or just click.This week, Google took its Street View technology off road and straight up the imposing 3,000 foot wall of El Capitan. "We
honestly, when we started, had no idea if it would actually work," said
Deanna Yick, program manager for Google Street View. "How are we
functionally going to do this? How are we gonna rig this contraption to
the side of this vertical cliff?"They did it by mounting cameras on three of the world's most elite
climbers -- and on the rock face itself, so that you can see just how
precarious things are looking from their perspective.Tommy Caldwell, who gained notoriety earlier this year for free climbing El Capitan's Dawn Wall, is one of the Google climbers.

"The ability to share that energy that we climbers derive from being in positions like that, that's just incredibly cool for me," Caldwell told CBS News. "It just transports you to that space.""This is a perspective that only these top climbers are able to see, and to see what they see is just remarkable," Yick said. "It's just way more of an interactive experience," Caldwell added. "You get a fuller picture than you do from video footage or even a still photo. You get to see the texture of the rock and the size of the holes that we're grabbing."Yick told CBS News technology is opening windows to places few might dare to go -- including her."My fear of heights would prevent me from ever doing this myself," she said. Now all those spectacular and horrifying views can be seen without ever leaving the ground.

Yosemite Fire Update #3

June 21, 2015Yosemite Creek (37 50.310 x 119 21.813 – Mariposa Co., 8,020’, June 7).The proposed actions to conduct a black line operation on Monday June 22, has been postponed.This fire is being managed for multiple objectives. There are two primary objectives of this fire: to keep the fire south of the Campground and Tioga Roads to protect Yosemite Creek Campground and the Tioga Road; and the other is to reduce the heavy build-up of dense fuels by allowing the fire to naturally back down the slope. It is near the footprint of the 2014, lightning caused, Dark Hole Fire. The immediate fire area has no known fire history. The fire is in red fir and huckleberry brush, and is surrounded by broken granite. Observed fire activity is low and smoldering in one down log. Yosemite, Point Reyes and Sequoia-King Canyon fire crews have prepared the Yosemite Campground Road for future fire operations. The Yosemite Creek Campground is open and there are no closed roads.Other FiresBoundary(37 45.778 x 119 40.502 – Mariposa Co., 8,000’, June 6). This fire is near Boundary Peak and remains inactive. A single red fir was struck by lightning. It is surrounded by granite and has low potential for growth. The fire will be monitored.South Fork (37 47.965 x 119 40.5028, - Mariposa Co., 8,100’, June 6).This fire is approximately one half mile from Cascade Creek. A single red fir tree was struck in an area of huckleberry brush and needle litter. This fire is on a northeast aspect and has low to moderate potential for growth. This fire has also been inactive. Wheel(37 55.430 x 119 27.873 – Tuolumne Co., 7,412’, June 8). This fire is remote and near Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp and Waterwheel Falls. It is in red fir, lodge pole and a Jeffrey pine forest. It is on the south side of the Tuolumne River. Brush and ground forest litter were observed to be smoldering. It has low potential for growth. This fire is also inactive with no visible smoke.Haze and smoke may continue to be visible due to fires outside of the park in the regional area. All visitors are urged to use established campgrounds for fires. In all campfires, when departing, please be sure all fires are out.Our top priority is to keep the public and firefighters safe. For More Information·Fire information: gary_wuchner@nps.gov, (209) 372-0480·Yosemite Web: http://www.nps.gov/yose/blogs/fireinfo.htm.·Air Quality: http://smoke.airfire.org/monitoringReport/#/?monitors=060431001&monitors=NPS.YOS1003.Ebam&monitors=Yosemite.NP.1&date=LATEST&productYosemite National Park Web page: Yosemite Wildland Fire Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yosemite -Wildland-Fire/12463296455395

YOSEMITE-WAWONA ELEMENTARY CHARTER SCHOOL

Board of Directors MeetingThursday June 25, 2015, 6:30 PMWawona Elementary School7925 Chilnualna Falls RoadWawona, CaliforniaAGENDA 1.CALL TO ORDER2.ROLL CALLMONTHLY ITEMS AND FINANCIAL REPORTS 3.CONSENT AGENDANOTE: The Board will be asked to approve all of the following items by a single vote, unless any member of the Board or of the public asks that an item be removed from the consent agenda and considered and discussed separately. 3.1.Approval of agenda3.2.Approval of minutes of the regular meetings on June 6 and June 15, 20154.Financial reports4.1.Monthly approval of warrants (Action needed)4.2.Financial Report 5.HEARING OF PERSONS WISHING TO ADDRESS THE BOARD The public may address the Board on any matter pertaining to the school that is not on the agenda. Unless otherwise determined by the Board, each person is limited to five (5) minutes. There will be no Board discussion and no action will be taken unless listed on a subsequent agenda. ACTION ITEMS 6.Approve 2015-2016 LCAP7.Approve new process for calling in employee hours to payroll company8.Discuss and approve replacement basketball hoops for playground.9. Re-approve budget (after LCAP).10. Reimbursement to Esme for common Core supplies - $482.00 (Esme will explain)11. Reimbursement to Esme for fingerprint service - $40.0012.13.INFORMATION ITEMS 14.BOARD MEMBER COMMENTS15.STAFF REPORTS15.1.L CAP Update15.2.2014-15 summary of Reports-15.2.1.1. CALPADS EOY Reporting, Attendance report, 2014-15 estimated actual expenses, 2015-16 Adopted budget, update on 2015-16 LCFF amounts, Audit information. 16.NEXT MEETING DATE17.CLOSED SESSION Personnel/Negotiations/Litigation NOTE: The Board will consider and may act upon any of the following items in closed session. Any action taken will be reported publicly at the end of the closed session as required by law.

Yosemite Fire Update #2

June 18, 2015Active Fires being managed for multiple objectives:The current fires are due to thunderstorm activity over the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Yosemite since June. The national weather service is predicting continued drier and warm conditions. All the fires are being monitored by Yosemite National Park firefighters. Yosemite Creek (37 50.310 x 119 21.813 – Mariposa Co., 8,020’, June 7).This fire is being managed for multiple objectives. There are two primary objectives of this fire: to keep the fire south of the Campground and Tioga Roads to protect Yosemite Creek Campground and the Tioga Road; and the other is to reduce the heavy build-up of dense fuels by allowing the fire to naturally back down the slope. It is near the footprint of the 2014 lightning caused Dark Hole Fire. The immediate fire area has no known fire history. The fire is in red fir and huckleberry brush, and is surrounded by broken granite. Observed fire activity is low and smoldering in one down log. Yosemite, Point Reyes and Sequoia-King Canyon fire crews will be preparing the Yosemite Campground Road for fire operations that may begin June 22. The Yosemite Creek Campground is open and there are no closed roads.Other FiresBoundary(37 45.778 x 119 40.502 – Mariposa Co., 8,000’, June 6). This fire is near Boundary Peak and has been inactive over the last week. A single red fir was struck by lightning. It is surrounded by granite and has low potential for growth. The fire will be monitored.South Fork (37 47.965 x 119 40.5028, - Mariposa Co., 8,100’, June 6).This fire is approximately one half mile from Cascade Creek. A single red fir tree was struck but in an area of huckleberry brush and needle litter. This fire is on a northeast aspect and has low to moderate potential for growth. This fire has also been inactive. Wheel(37 55.430 x 119 27.873 – Tuolumne Co., 7,412’, June 8). This fire is remote and near Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp and Waterwheel Falls. It is in a red fire, lodge pole and Jeffrey pine forest. It is on the south side of the Tuolumne River. Brush and ground forest litter was observed to be smoldering. It has low potential for growth. This fire is also inactive with no visible smoke.Smoke that may be visible in the park today, June 18, is due to current fires outside of the park in the Mariposa and Oakhurst areas. Smoke from these fires may be visible from many locations within the park. All visitors are urged to use established campgrounds for fires. In all campfires, when departing, please be sure all fires are out.Our top priority is to keep the public and firefighters safe. For More Information

Fifteen-Year Contract includes providing overnight accommodations, food and beverage, retail, and other related services to park visitorsThe National Park Service (NPS) has selected Yosemite Hospitality, LLC, a subsidiary of Aramark, to receive the new primary concession contract for providing visitor services in Yosemite National Park. The 15-year contract the largest single concession contract in the NPS is expected to begin on March 1, 2016, and will include overnight accommodations, food and beverage operations, retail sales, fuel sales, bike and raft rentals, and a variety of other recreational activities throughout the park.Were very excited about bringing on Aramark to operate our primary concessions, stated Yosemite Superintendent Don Neubacher. Aramark brings tremendous resources to the table and has extensive experience in operating concessions at many other national parks. We believe theyll be a great partner with us at Yosemite as we work to implement the vision of the Merced River Plan.Aramark has gross revenues of $14.8 billion and employs more than 270,000 employees in 21 countries and currently holds eight other NPS contracts with gross revenues of over $110 million in 2013, including concessions at Lake Mead and Glen Canyon National Recreation Areas, as well as Mesa Verde, Olympic, Denali, and Glacier Bay National Parks.Aramark will provide a variety of services to the public, including continuing to operate the Yosemite Valley shuttle system free of charge to all visitors. Additionally, under the new contract, concession operations will achieve several operational improvements including reducing vehicle traffic in Yosemite Valley, increasing water conservation, reducing electricity and fuel usage, and enhancing food and beverage operations for visitors.The contract has been sent to Aramark for signature and, once signed, will be transmitted to Congress for a 60-day notice period as stipulated by law. After this period, the NPS will sign and award the contract, then work with the existing concessioner and Aramark to complete an orderly transition.DNC Parks and Resorts at Yosemite, Inc. has operated under the existing contract since 1993, grossing over $146 million in 2014. They recently completed a well-received upgrade to the furnishings in all rooms at Yosemite Lodge and have operated and maintained two of the parks National Historic Landmarks and major visitor attractions, The Ahwahnee and the Wawona Hotel, completing numerous upgrades to these facilities over the course of their contract. Throughout its tenure as the parks primary concessioner, DNC Parks and Resorts at Yosemite, Inc. provided quality services and unforgettable experiences to millions of visitors, stated Yosemite National Park Superintendent Don Neubacher. We appreciate all of their work.Prior to 1998, concession law provided broad rights granting preferential right of renewal to incumbent concessioners. Since 1998, with the passage of an act reforming concessions management, issuance of most concession contracts generally became subject to fair and open competition with no preferential right of renewal for the incumbent and bids are evaluated and awarded via a competitive process.For information about Aramark, contact David Freireich at 215-238-4078 or freireich-david@aramark.com. Visit them online at www.aramark.com. Information about Yosemite National Park can be found at www.nps.gov/YOSE.

Several Fires Currently Being Managed Throughout The Park

YOSEMITE-WAWONA ELEMENTARY CHARTER SCHOOL

Board of Directors MeetingMonday, June 15, 2015, 6:30 PMWawona Elementary School7925 Chilnualna Falls RoadWawona, CaliforniaAGENDA 1.CALL TO ORDER2.ROLL CALLMONTHLY ITEMS AND FINANCIAL REPORTS 3.CONSENT AGENDANOTE: The Board will be asked to approve all of the following items by a single vote, unless any member of the Board or of the public asks that an item be removed from the consent agenda and considered and discussed separately. 3.1.Approval of agenda3.2.Approval of minutes of the LCAP public meeting, June 6, 20154.Financial reports4.1.Monthly approval of warrants (Action needed)4.2.Financial Report4.2.1. $5000 from WAPOA4.2.2. Reimburse Esme for expenses for school cooking program and flowers for cemetery totaling $155.10 5.HEARING OF PERSONS WISHING TO ADDRESS THE BOARD The public may address the Board on any matter pertaining to the school that is not on the agenda. Unless otherwise determined by the Board, each person is limited to five (5) minutes. There will be no Board discussion and no action will be taken unless listed on a subsequent agenda. ACTION ITEMS 6.Discuss and approve LCAP7.Discuss and approve BudgetINFORMATION ITEMS 8.BOARD MEMBER COMMENTS8.1.Golf Tournament8.2.Secretary/Aide position search9.STAFF REPORTS9.1.L CAP Update10.NEXT MEETING DATE11.CLOSED SESSION Personnel/Negotiations/Litigation NOTE: The Board will consider and may act upon any of the following items in closed session. Any action taken will be reported publicly at the end of the closed session as required by law. 11.1.Employee Negotiations (Gov. Code 54957.6)11.2.Personnel (Gov. Code 54957)11.3.Misc. Negotiations (Gov. Code 54956.8 b12.RECOVENE IN OPEN SESSION: ANNOUNCE CLOSED SESSION ACTIONS13.ADJOURNMENT